The Federation of Darlington Nursery Schools

 

Eligibility for the Early Years Pupil Premium (EYPP)

Please see our most recent EYPP Strategy:

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Early Years Pupil Premium Funding

The purpose of Early Years Pupil Premium (EYPP) funding is to help close the achievement gap between groups of children.

Are you entitled to Early Years Premium (EYPP)?

3 and 4 year olds in state-funded early education will attract EYPP funding if they meet at least 1 of the following criteria:

  • Income Support OR Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance OR Income-related Employment and Support Allowance
  • Support under part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
  • The guaranteed element of State Pension Credit
  • Child Tax Credit (provided you’re not also entitled to Working Tax Credit and have an annual gross income of no more that £16,190)
  • Working Tax Credit run-on, which is paid for 4 weeks after Working Tax Credit is stopped
  • Universal credit
  • They are currently being looked after by a local authority in England or Wales
  • They have left care in England or Wales through: an adoption OR special guardianship order OR child arrangement order

For further information from the Local Authority please click here

 

Rationale

The purpose of Early Years Pupil Premium (EYPP) funding is to help ‘close the gap’ between the lowest achieving children and those who are making appropriate progress or above.

The Government allocates extra money per pupil directly to the school when families meet certain criteria relating to household income. Research has shown that these children are more likely to under achieve, therefore the EYPP is specifically used to make sure they reach their full potential in Early Years.

Schools are required to explain how funding is spent and the impact on this group of children’s progress.

As a maintained nursery school high quality teaching and learning is important to us. We value our families and aim to get to know them well. We set high aspirations and ensure that all of our educators are not only well qualified but also take responsibility for raising attainment for all children. We do this by adopting an individualised approach to addressing barriers to learning and emotional support, as well as providing access to generic support. Our ethos is one of highly inclusive practice.

How are we using our EYPP funding?

Since September 2021 we have noticed a decline in all children’s attainment within the prime areas on entry to school, within the areas of language and communication, socio-emotional and physical development. Many parents also state that they are worried about children’s social wellbeing and their school readiness. These concerns are not just isolated to the Federation and in fact are nationwide. Impact of Covid-19 on Early Childhood Education Care.

We know that children’s emotional well being is the first necessity for effective learning. Evidence shows that children who demonstrate strong characteristics of effective learning, most notably self-regulation (the ability to regulate their feelings, thoughts, and actions) and executive function (a set of mental skills that include working memory, flexible thinking, and self-control- the skills we use every day to learn, work, and manage daily life) are more likely to succeed academically in the long term’ (Birth to 5 Matters). We use some of our funding towards paying for additional support within the nursery room to teach self-regulation skills through modelling, suggesting strategies, providing frequent opportunities to practice, and scaffolding to support children to use self-regulation skills. In addition, this support can be used to promote communication and model language effectively.

In the last few years there has been an increase in ‘sedentary’ behaviour’ and a reduction in physical activity. Darlington have launched a ‘Childhood Healthy Weight Plan 2019-2024’ with an emphasis on developing healthy lifestyles. All children are actively encouraged to participate in physical activity indoor and outdoor and every child is included in the experiences we have to offer. We use some of our early years pupil premium funding to provide weekly sports activities, where vigorous cardiovascular activity is encouraged.

This year EYPP funding has also enabled educators and children to take part in the LEAP ( Little Explorers and Parents) project with Northern Ballet, in conjunction with North East and North Cumbria Child Health and Wellbeing Network and Newcastle University. This project has been designed for Early Years practitioners to confidently deliver creative movement and storytelling sessions to children in their settings. The project helps to encourage wellbeing through movement, and to improve educational outcomes for children by making links to the EYFS.

We also use EYPP funding to increase children’s understanding of the world around them. In the Summer term the children learn about new life and life cycles through experiences such as watching the ducks hatch, seeing the hungry caterpillars transform into beautiful butterflies.

 

Measuring the Impact

We are continually reviewing the information we collect on children’s attainment and updating our strategies to support children to achieve well. The strategies we have in place, that are implemented on a daily basis, are only a few of the strategies. Their success can be monitored through the achievements of our children but there are other ways that we measure and monitor the impact we have on our children, families and staff. These are:

  1. Monitoring the quality of interactions between staff and children
  2. Monitoring the types of interactions children have with staff
  3. Monitoring how children respond to the learning environment
  4. Key Educator termly progress discussions
  5. Parent/Staff questionnaires.
  6. Informal conversations at the start or end of a day with staff and parents.
  7. Parent feedback forms provided at progress meetings.
  8. Parent Progress Meetings.
  9. Success after the implementation of the Early Help Assessments (EHA’s), SEND reviews.
  10. Conversations with professionals we work alongside to support families.